Show gold BY BEATRICE illustrations by irwin myers copyright by hughea hughes hassle massie co VV service THE STORY on a pleasure trip in eastern waters phil p amory anglish world war veteran now a trader on the island of papua new guinea plunges overboard to save the life of a musical comedy actress known as gin sling amory becomes interested in pla laurier member of EL wealthy new south wales family he tells her of his knowledge of a wonderful gold field on the la is land though he does not disclose the name of the place gin sling tells telli him P a is engaged to sir richard fanshaw amory however Is in confident that the girl Is not ind efferent to him ilia holiday ended he arrives back at daru he ile meets an man spicer P there on develop n ent business tor foe a syndicate of which fanshaw Is held heid fan pan shaw a name recalls to amory a long forgotten incident CHAPTER ill III continued 7 the tide was down and the cutter aground I 1 cannot tell with what anxiety I 1 examined her I 1 would al at most have set sail on a tree trunk if nothing else could be had to get away beyond all belief I 1 found the hull soui d enough to float with a bit 0 of ball ng the mast was smashed but I 1 thourl t we could rig one up with the boom setting the jib bel ind it I 1 went to look for found him sleeping bleeping peacefully in his hole and dragged him out by one leg hurry bavitt I 1 urged 1 ahe I he tides on the turn and well ell never get the boat down unless we catch it it shell she 11 float come on arlu ariki he objected me old me hun gerry want to go look tor for some house I 1 get lal lai kal lai food there was nothing for it but a lie ile I 1 had already decided that taviel should know nothing what he d d not know he could not spread abroad this Is a desert island I 1 told mm him coolly fult full of ghosts up to the brim and spilling over let lets s get away sharp and you can pick a few coco nuts to take along if you re as hungry as all that not the coconuts on the ground tahiti 1 those are ghost coconuts get them off the tree we loaded the boat with nuts and started work on the broken mast I 1 was mad to get away it was not yet dawn but tl e moon seemed paling and I 1 heard among the palm tree tops inland the first taint faint notes of waking parra keets if it they were to hear us it they came out my secret was lost and I 1 had some idea by this time as to how the power that owned omega regarded people who poled poked tra quist tive noses into secrets how they ml might ht be likely to treat me if I 1 was can caught taviel and I 1 got the large fair fairweathe er jib set with the gaff for boom and got under way in the new yellow dawn a mile distant I 1 saw the island clearly small low pricked with palms one III alle e a thousand thou others and I 1 judged that would never know he had not landed on turl after all back again in omega I 1 got charts which I 1 should undoubtedly bave hane had before and the sailing directions I 1 looked lp the island on which hieb I 1 had so unwillingly landed this was what our own admiralty volume said about it iota this island Is the lei leler er quarantine station for the omego group serious penalties are attached to landing yes I 1 said closing the book and I 1 can add to that getting a leper away from it to valparaiso or else where Is five years on the break water all this I 1 remembered point by point as I 1 walked beneath the man goes of daru three thousand miles away from omega in of d stance i lears ears in point of time I 1 remembered it clearly without omission as if it had bad happened yesterday and most cle irly of all did I 1 remember now the face of the man who wore the yellow diess with the black spots big as plates un it was the face of sir richard ran liaw haw everyll ing came back to me the height of the man his thinness his chestnut hair and ellov brown ebes the slim arched nose and neat chin thellas the lips unusually red for a mans the voice peculiarly resounding and deep in tone even the injured and deformed f anger nger nail that I 1 now remembered I 1 had seen as sir richard came up the ships accomma dation ladder slid ng one hand band along the guard rope I 1 was as sure as I 1 was of my own existence that pias pia s fiance was the leper who had that night escaped from iota island not while I 1 stayed in omega which was no longer than the call of the next boat did anyone discover what hid ind happened down in auk land I 1 came upon a paper that related the daring escape from iota of a for eign specula toi named fellows who had bad been buying up certain commer caal interests for his country and who had in the course of these affairs dermod it necessary to take out pa pers transferring his nationality to the flag that waved over omega A luckless ferl it placed him be neath death the laws laus and when a dramatic act accident ident tie tte discovery of a seen anoy harmless mark upon his boly holy when bathing obliged him to go up to the local doctor for examina tion he was sent without mercy to the quarantine in I 1 il 1 ere were those who hinted tl it at bellens recently ac quiren commercial interests had something to do with the case that a big company was ras behind the doctor pe that how it bellows was as sen sell fenced to iota and but for the daring rescue w u lid ild have spent the rest of h b s dds there fellows had been beer nine weeks on loti nire weeks in on an islet innab cited bv by the terr we ble things thing I 1 had bad seen 1 aw 4 PAY F you haven t a dry thread on you your he observed better shift an islet reeking with contagion and innocent of any modern sanitary pre caution wha whatever teNer he might or might not have had the germ with him when he went there but nothing was more probable than that he had taken it away with him in any case leprosy I 1 knew could lie ile dormant tor for many years might when acquired develop so slowly that the victim could live an ordinary life without being suspected for a very long time if fellows was indeed lanshaw if he had gone to omega to carry out a dar ing speculation in domegan products concealing his name and altering his nationality a course that sounded very like what one had known of him in tin the war then the most horrible peril that can be conceived hung over pia pla and there was no one but myself to get her out of it myself with a hundred odd pounds of capital no position and no deputa tion save the unlucky one of being in love with her myself against a rich and famous man high placed in society and approved by pias family no doubt approved by the girl time against me place against me everything against me save sane one thing the fact that fanshaw was coming to bew guinea CHAPTER IV it was late before I 1 ended that rest less tramp tl TI e night had turned to rain as it so often does in daru darn my torch when I 1 snapped it on to see the way shone on a myriad of crystal rods dancing all over the road the frogs had begun their nightly chant port port starboard star board 1 in the near distance among the mangi oves of the beach an alit gator belled as they do on these wet steamy nights I 1 said to myself with sudden resolve III go to bassett tell him the affair and see what he sacs they were not yet gone to bed in the residency I 1 could see them from the roadway Bas bassett s grave inin min interial Ister erial lal face he was the son of a well known parson and looked it Is ort hangers s narrow countenance that was like the face of a schoolmaster until you caught something strangely hard at the bach back of the blue eyes purchase bair hair ruffled like the feathers athera te of a hen and features as always on tl e veree vere of a hugh seeming to tike the world and his share of it which was vas assuredly a bird hird one very mer rily indeed spicer was nit to be seen I 1 was glad of it for or island houses offer small privacy and I 1 had that to say which would not pass with fanshaw s friend the others looked in their fresh white shirts and pile pl ei e i claued shoes exceedingly clean corn fordable for table and peaceful enjoying for a fe v daa dais a an oasis in th the desert of hardships that made up their corn mon lives into the midst of this I 1 came wet and bedraggled and I 1 make no doubt looking like a last bears ears corr corpse se I 1 c auld uld see the effect of mv my looks mir robed instantly in the faces about me but nobody jumped up or said my G d what s happened to you or whits what s the row or any lany other silly thing such as fellows elsewhere would certainly have thrown out at me these fellows were nere not given to tak ing any circumstance in life other than quietly spicer I 1 asked of bag bas sett it did not occur to me to offer any explanation of mv my return when I 1 was ras supposed to be abed with ith fever nor did anybody ask for one sit down he went back to maid stones hes he s staying there Nort hanger got up I 1 must be going he said the will be sending a patrol after me beady ready purchase it there was a hint purchase bise took it they were gone in another minute and bassett and I 1 were left alone la id the austere shiny 1 arlor bassett in Ms his precise way became busy he brought out a suit of clothes neater and better mended than anything I 1 possessed if somewhat cheaper in id kind and handed it to me you haven t a dry thread on yon you he observed better shift he went off into the kitchen and I 1 heard him stirring up a slee sleeping plug boy heard the clink of a kettle lid the jingling ol 01 glasses gassett bassett came back looked at me as I 1 sat fresh clad and made no remark the boy followed almos immediately with hot punch and a quinine bottle I 1 helped myself te it a share of both I 1 wanted to ask you something I 1 said yes answered bassett it was a brief reply but it carried a good deal the tone the too look of Bas bassett a brown eyes beneath his high min interial erial looking forehead fore heid the settled attitude hands crossed on knees all suggested calm reliability and what he must have known I 1 desired above all things as sick men consulting doc tors sinful men consulting priests desire it the professional attitude I 1 knew he be would do anything that could be done I 1 told him the whole thing it was not easy to tell because I 1 had to bring pla via into it and I 1 found to my intense disgust that my voice got nn un steady when I 1 spoke of her bassett listened quite to the end making no comment when he thought I 1 hai had quite done he be came out surprisingly with you are very much in love with this girl it was not a question it was a statement made much as one 9 physician might offer a comment on the cond tion of ones one s lungs or liver am I 1 I 1 said stupidly something had hold of me I 1 hardly knew what whal it was but it shook me what was as the matter had I 1 not agreed with myself that the wind which was alif laurier had bad blown blovin through my life an and d passed away to save her from frow marriage with one incredibly vile that was a duty but a duty that de evolved on me merely as a man not as the man who loed her I 1 had been so certain that I 1 should not therefore did not love the girl with the black shingle and blue eyes the girl who even if she were ten times free was not for me wanderer rolling stone black sheep things cleared in my brain the thought that had come to me was nothing brilliant nothing new it waa was only tl Is if I 1 am hurt I 1 am hurt well then I 1 ve got to stick it I 1 found it steadying comforting even TO BE CONTINUED |